Sunday, November 20, 2016

During his final debate against Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump bemoaned the state of America’s schools.

“Our inner cities are a disaster,” he said. “They have no education.”

It was a sweeping statement, unaccompanied by a solution.

But if the president-elect’s education plans haven’t been spelled out in detail, he has given some broad indications.

He has said he might eliminate or scale back the U.S. Department of Education. He wants to create a new school voucher program, support home-schooling, beef up childcare subsidies.

Educators across the country are waiting and wondering. Usually they know more by this point.

Traditionally, for example, both candidates appear before the American Federation of Teachers union to be considered for endorsement, said the union’s president, Randi Weingarten. Trump didn’t come — and the transition team has not returned her calls.

In the U.S., states and school districts control most education dollars and school-level decisions. Still, Trump has some power to act alone and with the help of Congress in ways that might affect California schools. For example, some expect Trump to give the state more breathing room in an ongoing fight over how schools should be rated.